Vozes hegemônicas e vozes insurgentes: uma análise discursiva crítica sobre a representação do aborto na mídia

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze, understand and compare the discursive representations of abortion and women who have already had an abortion constructed in Folha de São Paulo’s traditional journalism, and Revista AzMina’s independent journalism. For this, we undertook a theoretical-methodological analysis based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), especially anchored in the dialectical-relational approach (CHOULIARAKI; FAIRCLOUGH, 1999; FAIRCLOUGH, 2001, 2003, 2013), with an emphasis on actional and representational meanings. From the actional meaning, we used the intertextuality category; representational meaning, the categories interdiscursivity and vocabulary. The research is classified as documentary (MAY, 2004; GIL 2008) and is qualitative-interpretative (MAGALHÃES; MARTINS; RESENDE, 2017). We also methodologically articulate Corpus Linguistics to CDA (HARDT-MAUTNER, 1995; KOPH, 2019) using the UAM Corpus Tool software (O'DONNELL, 2019). To understand and discuss journalistic social practice, its role as a second power, and its functioning in society, we articulate the research of Albuquerque (2013), Ramonet (1999, 2013), and Herman and Chomsky (2003). Also, we add to this discussion the difference between traditional journalism (AMARAL, 2004; ZAMIN, 2014) and independent journalism (MENEZES, 2010; COSTA, 2018), which is crucial for the research. In the conjunctural analysis of the social practice of abortion, we bring the issue as a social error (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003) based on Rohden's (2002, 2003) considerations on how the control of women's reproductive capacity underlies the social roles played by them; and how social relations in reproduction practices reveal power dynamics. In addition, we discuss the social practice of abortion based on data on its dimension (BRASIL, 2011, 2018; DINIZ; MEDEIROS; MADEIRO, 2017; STARRS et al., 2018) and its legal and historical consequences (FEDERICI, 2017; PEDRO, 2017). 2012; DEL PRIORE, 1994, 2013; LOUZADA, 2020). The intertextual analysis of the reports revealed that the voice of women who had abortions is almost non-existent on Folha, with only 2.7% of the sources heard by the newspaper. At AzMina they represent 13.1% of the sources heard. We observe that on Folha, women who have had an abortion are brought into the report to fulfill the role of witness and offer their contribution as ‘experiencers’ of the fact in the most basic sense. Thus, if suppressed, we would see little or no impact on the journalistic narratives. On the other hand, in Revista AzMina, when the report includes these women, the narrative starts from them; and, if suppressed, would leave the text lacking cohesion and journalistic value. In the interdiscursive analysis, we noticed that the legal discourse predominates in the reports of the two communication vehicles; in this sense, abortion is predominantly represented from its legal aspects. Furthermore, we perceive an interdiscursive struggle, evidenced by the clash between two discourses: the anti-abortion and the pro-reproductive rights. Thus, in the voices and texts that materialize the anti-abortion discourse, women who have had an abortion are represented by linguistic-discursive choices such as repentant, incapable, liars, guilty, and women who deny motherhood; and, through the voices and texts that materialize the pro-rights discourse, they are victims, alone, psychologically vulnerable, but also citizens who actively contribute to society, subjects of rights, honest and struggling. Texts have social and causal effects (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003), and texts from the journalistic sphere, by recontextualizing the practice of abortion, represent abortion and women who have had abortions through different linguistic-discursive choices, some more aligned with hegemonic voices and others contributing to the insurgency of new voices, texts, and discourses.